Matthias A. Becher [1,2], Grace Twiston-Davies [2], Juliet L. Osborne [2]

[1] The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, 222 College Street, Toronto, M5T 3J1, Canada

[2] Environment & Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK;

E-mail: m.a.becher@exeter.ac.uk

The decline in abundance and species-richness of wild and managed bees raises serious concerns as they are important pollinators for crops and wild flowers. Reasons for the decline and high winter losses are assumed to be multifactorial, including loss of forage and nesting habitats, parasites and diseases as well as pesticide exposure.

While honeybees have been studied for a long time, resulting in a plethora of data as well as models on colony dynamics, foraging behaviour, and host-parasite interactions data on bumblebees is comparatively scarce and few models are available. Here I present two models, the honeybee colony model BEEHAVE and our new bumblebee population model Bumble-BEEHAVE. Models were developed in an agent-based approach using Monte-Carlo simulations. Foraging for nectar and pollen takes place in comparatively realistic landscapes and feeds back on colony development and reproduction. The models are (will be) freely available on our website http://beehave-model.net/ .